Local wildlife refuge is beginning to get some winter arrivals...

[PhilM_TX]

Wifey & I visited Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge over the weekend and could see a difference in the bird population from our previous visit a couple weeks age.

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[Boblou]

Lovely set PhilM_TX.
Missing this birds for about 6 months in Québec. ?

 

[Allan]

Nice set. Have fun the next few months.

 

[bsinc1962]

Excellent, quite the variety.

 

[PhilM_TX]

Lovely set PhilM_TX.
Missing this birds for about 6 months in Québec. ?

Thank you Bob. We will send them back soon, and take good care of them in the mean time. ;-)

Nice set. Have fun the next few months.

I appreciate it Allan. We certainly will. Of this set, the Flicker & Sapsuckers are temporary visitors.

Excellent, quite the variety.

Thanks Bill. The morning started off slow, after we spotted the BE upon arrival and things picked up as the morning went on. It was a bit of an odd day in that the sky couldn't quite decide what it wanted to do.

 

[PhilM_TX]

Soliciting feedback....

We had an odd anomaly that I still don't quite get. Actually, a buddy that was in a 2nd vehicle as we traversed the property observed it early on and as soon as he pointed it out, it became painfully clear to me too. Despite being pretty cool out (~low to mid 40's) and often pleasantly overcast, we were experiencing some degree of atmospheric degradation. It was similar to what you get in the summer (at least here in TX) when the rising heat waves (often visible thru the lens or even naked eye) effectively "filter" or dull fine detail(s).

My buddy said he shot 4 different bodies & multiple lenses and experienced it in varying degrees with all configurations. I shot shot my D500, Z50 and my wife had her D500 and we experienced it in all setups as well. Of all of our (Wifey & I) images, Theresa's shots were the most consistently "good", albeit not great. She used her direct mounted 500PF, where as I was often using a TC. Perhaps the additional magnification exacerbated the situation.

Of the images I posted in this thread,only Theresa's Northern Flicker shot was what I'd consider "sharp". All the others were a bit soft - particularly the two Sapsucker images, which should have been simple shots.

Perhaps there was some amount of moisture in the cool air that was working against us, but I never saw any fogging or anything like that.

Any thoughts on conditions that would contribute to such results when the temps are mild?

Thanks in advance!
Phil

 

[Louis Champan]

Excellent set Phil. The variety of birds is super.

 

[PhilM_TX]

Excellent set Phil. The variety of birds is super.

Thank you Louis.
It was really a fun and rewarding outing, other than the IQ anomalies.

 

[MikeMcA²]

Great variety! Glad to see you're getting more to shoot.

 

[PhilM_TX]

Great variety! Glad to see you're getting more to shoot.

Thanks Mike. Not only are we starting to see our winter visitors, the temps are cooling down so we can comfortably be outside! Lol....